1 2 Gleanings from the 



is named, introduces the afs: "As when a fluggifh 

 afs, parting by a cornfield, hath overborne the 

 boys, and many a cudgel has been broken round 

 his fides, but he, entering in, ravages the deep 

 crop while the boys beat him with {ticks. Yet 

 their ftrength is but feeble, and hardly have they 

 driven him out when he hath taken his fill of the 

 grain." 1 Mules were apparently much efteemed. 

 There is a mention of them as being very flrong 

 and employed in dragging heavy beams; they 

 draw Priam's chariot, having been given him as 

 illuftrious gifts by the Myfians. When Nauficaa 

 takes her garments to be warned by the fea-fhore, 

 they are drawn thither in a waggon by mules. 



The lift of mammals in the two great Homeric 

 poems, is completed by the hare, which is repre- 

 fented as torn by an eagle, as in the fplendid 

 chorus at the beginning of the Agamemnon of 

 jEfchylus, and by feals. A very curious paffage 

 relates how Menelaus, thanks to the help of 

 Eidothee, daughter of Proteus, furprifed that "old 

 man of the fea" among his feals which flept around, 

 " exhaling a bitter fmell of the deeps of the fea." 

 The ftench of thefe animals is again defcribed as 

 being overpowering, until the goddefs luckily be- 

 thought herfelf of rubbing a little ambrofia under 

 the nofe of each man, which effectually removed 

 the ill favour. 3 The poet probably alluded to 

 the phoca monachus of the Mediterranean, or 

 perhaps the pboca vitulina alfo feen at times in 



1 " Iliad," xi. 557. 2 Ibid., xxiv. 277. 



3 " Odyffey," iv. 404,. 436. 



